Sprinkler Ordinance Threatens Local Clubs

We've been looking into this sprinkler ordinance situation, and it looks like several small clubs will be affected by the city's enactment of an ordinance passed in May requiring all live entertainment venues with a capacity of 100 or more to install sprinklers as a fire safety measure. The trouble is, the installation cost is exorbitant—some club owners have gotten bids in the range of $30,000 to $80,000—and they're not being given much time to complete it, in some cases as little as 90 days. Also at issue is that the installation must be performed by a state-licensed company, and, according to Josh Billue at Exit/In, there are only seven of those in town.

More after the jump.

Many club owners have been on the phone with each other today, trading information about who will be affected. Older buildings are less likely to have sprinklers already installed. John Bruton at the Mercy Lounge says they installed sprinklers when the club was built to get a better safety code rating, and he believes newer buildings like City Hall and The Basement already have them, but smaller, older clubs such as the Bluebird or 3rd & Lindsley may not.

Billue received a visit from the fire marshal and a letter indicating he had 90 days to comply with the ordinance. He says he was told that of the 268 night clubs/venues in the Metro area, some 70 will be affected by this ordinance, including the comedy club Zanies (but interestingly, not dance clubs). Billue is still unsure how—or if—he'll come up with the money.

"I own two rock clubs [Zydeco in Birmingham], and I live in a little apartment in East Nashville," Billue says. "I'm not rolling around in money. Nobody I know that's in this line of work is rolling around in money. They do it because they like the music and the environment. A lot of us work month to month."

"We're doing what we can," Billue says. "We're taking bids like we're supposed to. We get to file for an appeal. What's difficult is the fire marshal is vague on what's going on. They're working with us, but they don't have clear answers about how long an appeal gives you."

As we reported earlier, 3 Crow is halting its hosting of live music rather than cough up tens of thousands of dollars to meet codes. That leaves The 5 Spot dominating the local music scene in East Nashville, but it's unclear how many clubs will be able to fund the construction, or how the loss of the clubs will affect a growing local music scene.

"The one nice thing I've seen about Nashville is everybody competes, but it's friendly competition," Billue says. "As a result, I think Nashville gets a heck of a lot of acts that might otherwise skip over the market because there's a lot of people interested in promoting and putting shows on. A lot of smaller venues do a lot of the local shows, and with that ability for local bands to play local places, we can do more national acts. It's really going to suck to see places get out of it all together. I don't think that benefits Nashville at all. But to put such a strain on places like Bluebird and Exit/In that give Nashville a national face. To punish the rooms that are older...I understand why codes need to change, but they should pursue another avenue. I mean...90 days. I'll be honest with you. I'm scared to death. I don't know which way this is going to go. I don't know what we're gonna need to do. And there's not a lot of people who can give you answers. We're just getting our bids and going about it."

"I want everything to be safe," he continues. "But when you got rid of smoking, there's no pyrotechnics allowed, the fire marshal signed off on something for 40 years, why all of the sudden now might it be an issue?...This has hit us blindside. We're looking at a couple of years at best to come up with this kind of money."

We'll keep you posted as we speak to more club owners and hear back from Metro codes, and we've just been informed that a meeting of some kind is being planned for tomorrow with the Convention & Visitors Bureau, some club owners, the mayor's office and a couple of council members.

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